Since 1942, the University of Michigan football team has played at Notre Dame Stadium during the afternoon 12 times — and actually owns a winning mark of 6-5-1 in such outings.
Ah, but when Michigan plays at night in Notre Dame Stadium, the Fighting Irish boast an “electrifying” 5-0 record, which they will try to boost to 6-0 this weekend. Long-time college football analyst Beano Cook used to refer to LSU as "the Count Dracula of college football" because they do their greatest damage at home in the night. It's been the same with Notre Dame hosting Michigan in prime time.
The five wins featured the first night game ever at the edifice (1982), an opener that was a prelude to the national title (1988), the lone showdown at the stadium when both were ranked in the top 5 (1990), the lowest scoring game (2012) since the renewal of the series in 1978, and most recently Notre Dame’s largest margin of victory (2014) in the rivalry.
Our week-long five-part series chronologically reviews each of those conquests. We begin with the 1982 game:
Sept. 18, 1982: Notre Dame 23, Michigan 17
Back Drop: The Wolverines had pounded the No. 1-ranked Irish 25-7 the year prior in first-year head coach Gerry Faust’s first college defeat en route to a 5-6 record. Purportedly, Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler had vowed he would never lose to a “high school coach,” meaning Faust’s previous stint at Cincinnati Moeller.
The Electricity: It was Notre Dame’s first night game ever at home, courtesy of Musco Portable Lighting for ABC-TV. Originally, the school had qualms and fears of “what if the lights fall into the stands?” or even suddenly blow some fuses during the game.
Prior to the game, the Irish were shown a debut viewing of “Wake Up The Echoes” honoring the history of the football program.
Outcome: Walk-on Mike Johnston's three field goals earned him a scholarship, fullback Larry Moriarty's 116 yards rushing and a touchdown was augmented by 95 yards on the ground by Greg Bell, who also scored, and a late interception strip by Dave Duerson paved the victory over the No. 10 Wolverines, who had played a week earlier while the Irish did not.
The conquest vaulted Notre Dame from No. 20 to 10 … and had the elated faithful of the program believing that maybe Faust might work out after all.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne's Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcaston iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinneyand @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook
